Guidelines for effective business blogging

Guidelines for Effective Business Blogging        

We’ve had a lot of our customers take up our recent offer to add a free blogging module to their websites and it’s been great to see new blogs appearing. As a consequence I’ve been asked for some guidelines on how to write a business blog, how frequent they should be etc, so I’ve assembled a few simple guidelines below.

Engage your readers

It’s a common mistake for new business bloggers to assume that they need to write blogs that are formal in style, or like a press release. The key thing to remember when writing is that a blog is much more akin to a conversation than a speech, so be yourself, express your personality and engage your readers. It’s a chance for your customers, potential customers, the media and so on to get to know you better.

It’s not “War and Peace”

There’s a real temptation when starting to write blogs to make the posts as long as possible. That’s fine if you’ve got a subject that warrants it, but short concise blogs can be just as effective as longer posts.

Avoid marketing hype

One thing you can guarantee is that if your blog blathers on about how great your company or products are, readers will switch off almost instantly. Your blog can contain “how to” guides, opinion, industry news etc. and even information about your products and services, just forget about the hype!

Be Relevant

If you have blog section on a business website, you can assume that some visitors to your blogs will be looking for industry information or to get a better sense of who you are. So unlike a personal blog that can be all opinion, it’s important to have a mix of blogs relevant to your business or industry. Here at SiteSuite we have a range of blogs from website focussed information to the pure opinion blogs of The Wrinkle.

Use spell and grammar checker…

If you are writing about your industry, spelling and grammar does matter! Not only will you avoid upsetting those for whom these things matter, the quality of your writing will demonstrate that you have high standards

Set aside a regular time to write

Writing of any sort requires discipline. To publish regular blog posts we’d recommend that you plan your topics in advance, set aside regular time to write and if possible have a couple of unpublished posts in reserve to cover those occasions when you run out of time to write.

How often should I blog?

This can vary considerably but it’s generally recognised that once a week is the minimum and daily is good.

These guidelines aren't hard and fast rules, various blogs succeed or failure for all sorts of reasons, however they are a good start and I'm sure we'll return to the topic of guidelines for effective business blogging from time to time.